[Xastir-dev] ALOHA circle display (and calculation)

[Tom Russo]

On Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 06:13:42AM -0400, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <brown at brauhaus.org> flavor, containing:
> On Tue, 7 Jun 2005, Tom Russo wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Jun 07, 2005 at 06:36:21AM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <gerry.creager at TAMU.EDU> flavor, containing:
> > > PLEASE tell me there's a way to turn that off?!
> > 
> > Curt committed a map-menu option to turn off display of ALOHA circles this
> > afternoon.  
> > 
> 
> FWIW, and maybe this just goes more to indicate how (not) well my RF side
> is working here in the DC metro area, I don't see the circle yet, after
> running since sometime yesterday afternoon.  I'd enjoy having a way to see
> the current status of the calculation. 

Try zooming pretty far out.  Mine tends to be several times larger than the
zoom level I usually use --- actually, I have to be zoomed out to almost state 
level to see it.  Your station location also has to be in the window for
the circle to appear, even if the arc would cross the window (because I just
copied "draw_pod_circle", which has that limitation).  

For more detail than a single radius number, compile with -DDEBUG_ALOHA. That 
will dump to stdout the list of stations inside your ALOHA range and what type 
of stations they are.  The dump happens when the range is calculated, so it
happens only once every half an hour.

I would like to have View-> entries that could show the ALOHA range and 
the number of stations inside that range, with a breakdown by # digis, #mobiles
and # homes.  Just didn't have the time to code that.

> > Curt and I discussed whether we should part company with Bob Bruninga regarding
> > user control of ALOHA display (Bob says it should always be displayed), and
> 
> Does he specify whether a yellow circle needs to be drawn, or would he
> settle for, as suggested above, a numeric display on the status bar at the
> bottom of the screen? 

Yes.  He asks that all APRS clients put a circle on the map, and goes so 
far as to insist that clients not have it possible for a user to disable it.  
He *suggested* that it be a yellow circle for consistency with other clients.

Xastir will allow you to turn it off because we actually have users who 
need the maps to be uncluttered for important reasons.  But the option
isn't saved, as a compromise between "never, ever disable" and "gimme 
a clean map" 

> > the compromise is that it can be turned off, but the disabling is not saved
> > in the configuration file.  
>
> // note to self:
> // make patch to ifdef this in personal codetree ;-)

The reason for Bob insisting that APRS clients not allow it to be turned off
is based on trying to force users to think about ALOHA range.  While that sort
of in-your-face attitude chafes a little bit, I see just barely enough
justification to buy it half way and draw it unless the user specifically
requests it, and then only for the currently running instance.

If you routinely sit at zoom levels high enough to have the circle clutter
your display so badly that it is unusable, you can turn it off temporarily
in Xastir.  Otherwise, it shouldn't make any difference.  The calculation is
cheap, and it only happens once every half an hour.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY     SAR502  DM64ux         http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 
 "The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly
  worth the effort." -- Norton Juster